Once I first noticed references to this one-pan technique of creating pasta, I used to be skeptical…
Certainly it couldn’t be attainable to cook dinner the sauce and the pasta all of sudden in the identical pan, skipping the pasta-boiling step? It appeared to violate each rule of Italian cooking. However then I noticed that the tactic isn’t actually so removed from a risotto. The bonus of this approach — other than unimaginable pace and ease and minimal washing up — is that the pasta is seasoned by the sauce because it cooks and turns into deeply flavored with wine, aromatics, inventory, no matter you select so as to add. It really works with any form of pasta — however a superb high quality model makes a giant distinction — and nearly any mixture of greens and different flavorings, akin to anchovies or cured meats. You simply need to watch out to measure the ratio of pasta to water precisely, use a large shallow frying pan or sauté pan (it gained’t work in a tall, slender saucepan) and be beneficiant together with your seasoning.
On leisurely evenings, I nonetheless favor the time-honored technique of cooking the noodles and the sauce individually (a way that my youngest son now calls “Muggle Pasta” to tell apart it from “Magic Pasta”). And but, I can’t urge you strongly sufficient to be taught this method and have it in your head for when you’re in a pinch and also you want a scorching meal proper now.
I made a model of it with cauliflower and chorizo for a late lunch the day of my father-in-law’s socially distanced funeral. Due to the pandemic, members of the family stood in a chilly and empty car parking zone making an attempt to make gestures of affection and sorrow to 1 one other from behind our masks. When the kids and I lastly arrived again dwelling, we felt flat and insatiably hungry. Fifteen minutes later, we had been sitting right down to a warming and savory tangle of linguini with chorizo and flecks of saffron-yellow cauliflower. We had been nonetheless grieving however at the least we didn’t really feel fairly so empty inside.
My favourite model of this pasta is a variant made with mushrooms and garlic and cream and wine. It’s a dish that may be very type on the cook dinner, and the deep umami high quality comforts me to my core.
Magic Pasta with Mushrooms, Garlic, Cream and Wine
Serves 1 (might be doubled, tripled, and so forth, however be sure to are utilizing a large shallow pan)
4 ounces mushrooms (I normally make it with brown button however any type will do)
3 1/2 ounces pasta, any type that claims on the package deal that it’s going to cook dinner in 10 minutes (I favor linguini right here however penne additionally works)
1–2 fats cloves of garlic, peeled and grated
Knob of unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups flat-leaf parsley, chopped
2 tablespoons white wine or vermouth
2 tablespoons heavy cream
Squeeze of lemon
Parmesan, to serve
Salt
Grate the mushrooms coarsely on a field grater (or blitz them in a meals processor). Put all the substances as much as and together with the white wine into a large frying pan or sauté pan (holding again a handful of the parsley) and add 1/3 teaspoon of salt and 1 2/3 cups of water from a freshly boiled kettle. It should look incorrect placing moist and dry substances collectively so haphazardly however have religion — it would all come collectively. Put over excessive warmth and produce to a boil with the lid on. Proceed to simmer with the lid on for 5 minutes, checking and stirring each minute. Now take away the lid and cook dinner for 3 to five minutes extra with the lid off, stirring regularly with tongs or a picket spoon. If it appears to be like dry or if the pasta isn’t cooked, add one other splash of water, however you don’t need it to go too soupy. (Creamy, sure; soupy, no.) Proceed to cook dinner, testing items of pasta, till it’s executed to your liking. Add the cream and squeeze of lemon. Take a look at for seasoning. Serve with the reserved parsley and parmesan on high. Devour.
This recipe was excerpted from Bee Wilson’s fantastic new ebook, The Secret of Cooking: Recipes for an Simpler Life within the Kitchen.
P.S. Stress-free household dinners and issues I want I knew once I began cooking.
(Picture by Matt Russell.)
